Online banking, also known as PC banking, home banking, electronic banking or Internet banking, uses today's computer technology to relieve the customer of the time-consuming, paper-based aspects of traditional banking in order to manage his or her finances more quickly and efficiently. Thanks to the advent of the Internet, banks have been using powerful computer networks to automate millions of daily transactions to minimize the time-consuming paper record and providing different banking services to its customers quickly. Online banking is a powerful value added tool to the banks for attracting and retaining new customers by helping them in eliminating costly paper based teller interactions and has become very important in an increasingly competitive banking environment.

Unlike traditional corner banks, online banking sites never close; they're available 24 hours a day and seven days a week. If the customer is out of state or even out of the country when a money problem arises, he or she can log on instantly and take care of business. Similarly he or she can access and manage all aspects of their bank account including IRAs, CDs, even securities, from one secured website.

The processing speeds of online bank sites used to execute and confirm transactions are much more quicker than ATM processing speeds. Online banking sites now offer sophisticated tools like account aggregation, stock quotes, rate alerts, and portfolio managing programs to help the customers in managing all of their assets more effectively. In order to register for q bank's online program, the customer will probably have to provide ID and have to sign a form at a bank branch.

Today, most of the large national banks and many regional banks offer some form of online banking. Almost all the large banks now offer fully secured and functional online banking for either for free or for a small fee. Some smaller banks offer limited functionality; for instance, the customer may be able to view account balance and history but cannot initiate transactions online.